Raiders GM: Fans will 'migrate' to Las Vegas, be 'even more supportive'

Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie saw the Los Angeles Coliseum packed with his team’s fans and must have thought he was peering into the future. The club moves to Las Vegas in 2020.

“I think the combination of Oakland and LA will migrate to those games (in Las Vegas). I think we’re going to get a true Raiders fan base,” McKenzie said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Gilbert Manzano.

The Raiders called LA home from 1982 to 1994 and returned to the venue for the first time since moving back to Oakland. Fans of the iconic franchise overwhelmed Rams rooters in their own stadium, and McKenzie was encouraged — he even claimed the team’s backers would increase their support after the move to Las Vegas.

“I think they’re going to stay with us, I really do,” McKenzie said, per Manzano. “They gave no indication that they’re not going to support the Raiders, that’s for sure. I think they’re going to continue to support and be even more supportive.”

It may be a stretch to say fans — especially in the Bay Area — will become more supportive after the team moves to another state. But the fan base is called the “Raider Nation” for a reason, and many fans will gladly travel to Las Vegas for the weekend to watch their beloved Raiders a couple of years from now.

But the future is hard to predict. McKenzie may be better off stifling any notion he has about how the fan base will react when Las Vegas becomes reality. His task of constructing a Super Bowl contender is already difficult enough in its present form.

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